NBA player Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups have been arrested by the FBI in connection with illegal betting on NBA games and poker matches, in two separate but linked cases involving more than 30 defendants.
Rozier is accused of sharing insider information with associates, allegedly tipping them off that he would fake an injury so they could wager over $200,000 on his failure to reach certain statistical benchmarks (such as points scored). Billups, meanwhile, has been implicated in a series of fixed poker games with ties to organized crime.
Rozier currently plays for the Miami Heat, while Billups is a former NBA star and Finals MVP, who won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004.
In this sprawling case, FBI officials said over 30 individuals have been charged. Rozier allegedly provided confidential details about his playing status to help accomplices profit from insider bets on NBA performance stats — a violation of both federal law and league rules.
Billups, on the other hand, faces charges in a separate but related investigation into rigged celebrity poker games designed to defraud unsuspecting participants. Prosecutors say players were lured with the promise of facing famous athletes, only to discover that the games were manipulated using advanced technology in venues across New York, Las Vegas, and Miami.
According to federal authorities, New York’s Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese, and Genovese crime families also played a role, controlling several of the underground poker operations where the rigged games took place. These groups allegedly collected a share of the profits, engaged in extortion and robberies to recover unpaid debts, and laundered proceeds through cryptocurrency and other channels.
Source: Reuters
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